


You're Here (there's nothing i fear)

by tinyfirefly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Destined to meet, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff, Kind gestures, Kindred Spirits, Love at First Sight, Mutual Loneliness, Reylo Week 2020, Romance, Strangers to Lovers, more tags will be added as needed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:35:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23888323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinyfirefly/pseuds/tinyfirefly
Summary: He sees her being stood up on a date at the restaurant he's in a business meeting at and offers a lifeline.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey & Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	You're Here (there's nothing i fear)

The package arrives with the other miscellaneous items left for him: a dusty leather coat, some photographs and postcards of places that Ben had never visited, a model car, and a pair of golden dice. And the gift wrapped package. Christmas motifs out of season, scotch tape popping loose on one side, the object clumsily bundled in paper is slim like a DVD but more square like a CD.

A last present.

Something Han had never gotten around to giving him before his death.

_Hey kid, I thought of you – Just wanted you to know –_

Han's sentences end without periods the way he couldn't talk to his son's face without cutting out the truth. It may be a gesture that's too little too late, but...

Below the last line: Just wanted you to know –

The cover reads: You Will Be Found.

Looking at the dust jacket, the first words gut him. _There's a place where we don't have to feel unknown and every time that you call out, you're a little less alone._

You Will Be Found the title promises.

But it's not a threat. It's a promise. A rescue. And it speaks to the void of desolation tearing at him within, a promise of a chance for reconciliation, that maybe – just maybe – while they never saw eye to eye, or said the right thing, maybe an understanding had existed after all?

If only...

It's all that's left now. If only Han had given him the book. If only Han hadn't died. If only that maybe had become a genuine possibility...

<><><>

It's during a business dinner that he sees her. Brown hair framing a delicate face. Make up accentuating all the best parts of her features. Hazel eyes dazzling with excitement as she takes in the opulence of the restaurant. Thin lips beaming a smile as the waiter offers her a menu... but the other side of her table is empty, waiting for her date to arrive.

At first he envies her for having a date. He'd rather be anywhere else then entertaining new clients for Snoke. The more he watches her though... the more he envies whoever her date may be for getting to be with her. But as the evening wanes, salads coming and going with little notice, entrees being served around the table to murmurs of pleasure, he cuts into his steak as pain for her cuts into his heart.

She's still alone.

The waiter is checking up on her again, smile polite, not hiding sympathy lining his face, nodding as she says something. She's still beaming that same smile, eyes no longer alight, fingers clutching the stem of her glass, shoulders straight and belying confidence as she sends the waiter away. Once he's gone, her face falls, composure fracturing.

And he knows what he needs to do.

Excusing himself from the table (and the meeting), he ducks into an alcove near the bathroom, pulling out the book that has found a home in his briefcase. Jotting a swift note inside, he leaves the restaurant. And the book.

Passing it directly into the hands of he waiter, heart clenching at letting the last gift from his father go, he doesn't look back. He doesn't regret it. He doesn't wait to see how she receives it. He doesn't doubt his decision, because he recognized her – in that moment her face fell – he recognized that same reason why Han had bought the book for him.

And her loneliness had needed it more.

<><><>

_Just wanted you to know..._

<><><>

Her text comes the next day. Fifteen hours and twenty-three minutes after he gave the book to her.

_You left your book at The Resistance._

_I know. I left it for you._

_Why?_

_Because you needed it._

<><><>

Receiving a book from a stranger after being stood up on a date is odd. The level of weird befitting Jehovah's Witness handing out pamphlet advertisements for God level weird. But the book isn't a pamphlet. Instead it's... It... Well, it leaves her feeling heavy. Really heavy. Heavy with things she refuses to think about right now because somehow a stranger had seen through her, had seen what she never wanted anyone to see, and she couldn't have that.

The book...

She'd have to return it. Soon. But it meant something to her now. In fact, she'd already ordered another copy of it off of Amazon (even though the twelve dollars would've been better saved for rent) but she owed the guy a book and she wasn't sure if she could part with the he'd leant her. Thus the new book.

If only he hadn't made the dedication page for her...

On the dedication page, the “To:” had been left blank, but the “From:” read: _From: xxx-867-5309. Because this book found YOU._

Although he'd only written his phone number, it meant something. By choosing to put his number down and allowing it to speak with the dedication message, it was as if he had invited her to allow herself to be found. And she wanted that because it _meant something_.

And then the message from the authors had _meant something_. Had touched her, the part about being the edge of a new chapter resonating with her, but it was the words and simple illustrations that drew her in the most. Had allowed the voice of fear to quiet in the background, to stop whispering that something bad might happen because You Will Be Found sounded ominous without any context to explain it. But the choice was hers and that also meant something.

So she read the book again. And again. And again.

It helped. For whatever reason, it soothed the injuries and scars of where others had left her, it told her inadequacies that they were wrong and that she did mean something, it promised that things would get better, that she would be fine and that she would be found.

That she had already been found. Because she _meant something_. She meant enough that a stranger had offered her a kind gesture after seeing her be stood up.

So she texted the number. There were no clues to the person who'd left it, other than the little she already knew, but this book was literally the most vulnerable thing that had ever happened to her, so it had to mean something. Right?

That was how she met Ben.

That was how her loneliness ended.

And it meant something.

**Author's Note:**

> For Reylo Week 2020: Day 1
> 
> So, I didn't realize this was happening until I bought "You Will Be Found" by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul. It touched me, unexpectedly so, because I'm the type of person to go to the children's section of the bookstore and pick up the most creative, adventurous, well illustrated stories that I can find, but this one looked appealing and when I read the back it was like someone had stabbed me in my deepest insecurities. It spoke to how inadequate I felt, how little I've done in life, and how I'm no where near where I would like to be, and I knew I had to write a fanfic for Rey and Ben that explained that. 
> 
> Of course, with this being Reylo week, I also had to tie it into the daily prompt, so that's where the You're Here title comes from. Now, I could've made it easy for myself and said that the song behind the book is the same song for the prompt, but that's not the case. From the moment I heard Chase Holfelder's major to minor cover of "My Heart Will Go On", I've pictured Reylo. So I wanted to write a kind of soft, quiet story that fit the song. Where the strength of the story isn't so much in the originality of my ideas, but rather how they are each desperately seeking to belong and how they find that belonging with each other because they recognize the core of the other reflecting their own. 
> 
> Honestly, if I had the time, I would've taken this further. I wanted it to be a lot more, but my tired brain insisted that it was time to end it, so expect like another two chapters to explore this theme before concluding it. For now though, I'll be setting this aside, but guaranteed, I'll be finishing this properly at a later time.
> 
> Anyway, I'm rambling (due to writing this before bed, ha, the tags will be bad again!) but hopefully there aren't too many errors... I wrote this on my phone, so... yeah. That happened. And it turned out longer than I predicted it would (still need to go on that word diet...).
> 
> Thanks for reading! I hope you guys enjoyed it and I'd love to hear feedback!
> 
> (P.S. Kudos to anyone who catches the other reference I tossed in there ;D )


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